Shenandoah Album Books

Three generations of women discover the healing gift of family, memories and love Needing time to contemplate her troubled marriage, Tessa MacRae agrees to spend the summer helping her mother and grandmother clean out the family home in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. But the three women have never been close. Helen, the family matriarch, is domineering and sharp-tongued. Nancy, Tessa's mother, appears to be little more than a social climber. And Tessa herself is in turmoil following a family tragedy that has affected them all. Now, with the gift of time, Tessa's eyes are opened, and she begins to see her mother and grandmother for the flawed but courageous women they are. As she restores a vintage wedding ring quilt pieced by her grandmother and quilted by her mother, the secrets that have shadowed their lives unfold at last. And each woman discovers that sometimes you have to clean house to find the things you thought were lost forever.

With the warmth and comfort of a handmade quilt, Endless Chain explores the intricate patterns of family and community, and the threads that bind them together Sam Kinkade is finally feeling at home as a minister in rural Toms Brook, Virginia, content with his life and Shenandoah Valley congregation. But his plans to welcome the area's growing Hispanic community are being met with resistance. Fortunately, when the church-run community center is threatened, a stranger named Elisa Martinez walks through his door and Sam realizes he has found a woman capable of building bridges. Elisa isn't looking to make connections. She has come to Toms Brook to hide. But despite her fears of discovery she is enchanted by the beautiful work and the friendship offered by the women who invite her to join their quilting circle. And even though she fears the consequences for both of them, she finds herself powerfully drawn to Sam, and to a generations-old love story rooted in the town's past. Will she and Sam repeat the past, or can they find the love and the freedom they seek at last?

In the rich, evocative prose that earned high praise for WEDDING RING and ENDLESS CHAIN, Emilie Richards crafts the third tale in the Shenandoah Album series, resonant with the power of love and family ties Confused about her troubled marriage, Kendra Taylor needs time to sort out her feelings. Retreating to an abandoned cabin left to her husband, Isaac, by the maternal grandmother he never knew, she is quickly welcomed into the rural community of Toms Brook. She soon becomes curious about a beautiful heirloom quilt and the past Isaac has always refused to explore. The unusual quilt clearly has a story to tell, and Kendra hopes that helping her husband connect with his roots may also help him reconnect with her. At first Isaac's reluctant visits to the cabin only underscore the difficulties in their marriage. But as circumstances force them to piece together a new relationship, Isaac discovers that the history of a family he never knew may hold the key to his future. As a passionate story of strength, loss and desperation unfolds, the secrets of the quilt are revealed and the threads of an unraveling marriage are secured. Previously published

"Magically interpreting the emotional resonance of love and loss, betrayal and redemption through luminously drawn characters, Richards' latest installment in her irresistible, quilt-inspired Shenandoah Album series glows with transcendent warmth, wisdom, grace, and compassion."— Booklist When is a family no longer a family? Gayle Fortman has built a good life for herself and her three sons as an innkeeper in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. She has even maintained a cordial relationship with her ex, charismatic broadcast journalist Eric Fortman, covering with the boys for his absences and broken promises. Luckily Travis Allen, her closest neighbor, has been a loving surrogate father to the boys and her own best friend. Then, on the eve of oldest son Jared's graduation, Eric returns, having nearly lost his life in Afghanistan. Worse, he has lost his way and his courage, and needs a place to recover. Gayle realizes this might be the last chance for her sons to establish a real bond with their father, and offers him a summer at the inn and a chance to put things right. Gayle and Eric are all too aware that their onetime love and attraction are still there. But can the pieces of their broken lives be mended, or are they better laid to rest? Previously published

“This special book is one of the best women’s contemporary novels you might read this year, and one that you will recommend to all your friends.”— Fresh Fiction Told with remarkable depth and warmth, this heartfelt story of sisters in transition reminds us that the choices we make are the real legacy we leave behind. Kendra and Jamie were never storybook sisters. But after a long estrangement, Jamie has offered Kendra and her husband their ultimate dream—a child of their own. Despite some lingering misgivings about her once-wayward younger sister, Kendra agrees, and Jamie, a promising architect and single mother, becomes a gestational surrogate for Kendra and Isaac. In addition to this amazing gift of life, Jamie designs a house for the couple on Isaac's ancestral property along the Shenandoah River. She hopes Kendra will finally see the woman she has become. But when a medical crisis threatens Jamie's health and her budding relationship with Kendra's builder, the enigmatic Cash Rosslyn, Jamie learns that the most difficult choice in her life is still ahead, and its cost may be beyond calculation. Previously published